OUTERSPACE TODAYNEWS
← All editionsMonday, August 03, 2026 / Issue 046
[ OST Daily ]

Space Force Awards K2 Space a $22.9M Optical Terminal Demo, Opens $981M Training Range Pool to 15 Firms

Outerspace Today6 min read / 2026-08-03
OST Daily August 3, 2026 — Space Systems Command awarded K2 Space a $22.9 million contract to fly two Enterprise Space Terminals for an optical demonstration by 2028, days after K2 closed a $500 million round, and selected 15 companies to compete for up to $981 million in space test and training range task orders through 2032.
The daily pictureOST editorial illustration · 2026-08-03
[ 01 ]

The briefing

The Space Force awarded K2 Space a $22.9 million contract to integrate and operate two Enterprise Space Terminals as hosted payloads on K2 satellites, with the optical demonstration due by 2028. The award landed days after K2 closed a $500 million Series D at a $6.8 billion valuation led by Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ, priced off next-twelve-month revenue against $1 billion in contracts signed since 2022. The Air Force Research Laboratory added $11.7 million to Blue Origin's REGAL rocket cargo study, taking the total to about $13 million, while New Glenn remains grounded after the May 28 hot-fire anomaly.

Katalyst Space Technologies is using Link's gimbaled electric thrusters to slow the spin that began July 25 after two reaction wheels and part of the cold-gas system failed on the way to reboost NASA's Swift observatory, and CEO Ghonhee Lee said an attempted capture of Swift is still on the table.

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The headlines

01

K2 Space raises $500M at $6.8B valuation and books Space Force laser demo

K2 Space closed a $500 million Series D at a $6.8 billion post-money valuation, led by Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ with participation from CapitalG, Lightspeed, Altimeter, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, ARK Invest and T. Rowe Price-advised accounts. CEO Karan Kunjur said the price reflects a multiple of next-twelve-month revenue on roughly $1 billion of signed contracts and that K2 will scale to 100 satellites per year at its current facility.

02

Air Force expands Blue Origin rocket cargo study to about $13M

The Air Force Research Laboratory added $11.7 million to Blue Origin's Rocket Experimentation for Global Agile Logistics contract, taking the deal to roughly $13 million with work through October 2027. Blue Origin will define technical and mission requirements for adapting its systems to point-to-point cargo transport, alongside REGAL awards to Anduril, Sierra Space and Rocket Lab. New Glenn has flown three orbital missions since January 2025 but remains grounded after the May 28, 2026 hot-fire anomaly damaged Launch Complex 36, with Blue Origin still targeting a return to flight by year-end.

03

Katalyst uses Link's electric thrusters to fight for Swift rescue

Katalyst Space Technologies is using Link's gimbaled xenon electric thrusters to arrest a multi-axis spin that began July 25, after two of three reaction wheels failed and some cold-gas thrusters degraded on the spacecraft launched July 3 under a $30 million NASA contract to reboost the Swift gamma-ray observatory. CEO Ghonhee Lee told Ars Technica that Link's power supply, three xenon engines, and rendezvous and robotics hardware remain healthy, and that an attempted capture of Swift is still very much in the cards. Katalyst has months before Swift's orbit decays too far for the rescue to be feasible.

04

Space Force taps 15 firms for $981M NITE-STAR training range pool

Space Systems Command selected 15 companies to compete for up to $981 million in task orders through July 2032 under the National Space Test and Training Complex Innovative Technology and Engineering, Space Test and Range vehicle. Winners include Boeing, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman, L3Harris, Rocket Lab, Sierra Space, Firefly Aerospace, Redwire, Viasat, York Space Systems, Amentum, BAE Systems, CACI, Parsons and Pacific Crest Alliance. The contract funds satellites, sensors, ground systems and simulators to reproduce jamming, cyberattacks and adversary spacecraft behavior for Space Force Guardians, addressing what Lt.

05

Airbus named prime for SpainSat NG-III secure comms satellite

AIR HO

Hisdesat awarded Airbus Defence and Space the prime contract for SpainSat NG-III, adding a third satellite to Spain's advanced secure communications constellation. The X-band active antenna satellite is designed to reconfigure coverage up to 1,000 times per second, resist jamming and spoofing, and meet NATO standards for signal intelligence and hardened resiliency, with Thales Alenia Space in Spain leading UHF and military Ka-band payloads. Combined with SpainSat NG-I, launched in 2025, coverage spans North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

06

Boeing Starliner-1 still without a firm return-to-flight date

BA

NASA's Bill Spetch said work with Boeing on Starliner is making good progress but declined to date the cargo-only Starliner-1 mission during a July 30 briefing on upcoming International Space Station (ISS) spacewalks. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said on the July 28 earnings call that scheduling with NASA is the main open item, and a Boeing SEC filing pointed to no earlier than the fourth quarter, yet Starliner-1 was absent from Spetch's fall and winter ISS manifest that includes SpaceX Crew-13, SpaceX CRS-35 and Northrop Grumman NG-25.

[ 03 / +26 / -5 ]

Market pulse

Archived snapshot from this edition. Prices and moves are not live.

Gainers+26
Decliners-5
Big mover YSS-3.5%

York Space Systems ended the last Yahoo session as the top delayed decliner in the tracked set at -3.5%, alongside BlackRock-affiliated Form 4 disclosures showing sales of 204,213 YSS shares on July 29 and July 30 at weighted average prices of $15.31 and $15.18.

AssetSnapshotMoveTrend
CRSCarpenter Technology$519.66+3.2%
ATIATI$187.44+3.0%
BKSYBlackSky Technology$23.05+2.6%
YSSYork Space Systems$14.73-3.5%
DCODucommun$179.02-2.4%
BABoeing$216.14-2.2%
[ 04 / 6 tracked ]

Launch watch

Schedule and countdowns as recorded in the 2026-08-03 edition.

Long March 8A

CASC · Long March 8A · Commercial LC-1 · Wenchang Space Launch Site

Smart Dragon 3

China Rocket Co. Ltd. · Smart Dragon 3 · Haiyang offshore launch location · Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

H3-22 | Michibiki 7 (QZS-7)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries · H3-22 · Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 · Tanegashima Space Center, Japan · GTO

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Filings

[ End of Issue 046 ]

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